Greenhouse Madness, Part 2

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Greenhouse Madness, Part 2
After five years of living with a makeshift greenhouse that I covered with shade cloth in the summer and 5 mil polyethylene in the winter, I saw the plans for a greenhouse sold in one of the seed catalogs. After purchasing the plans and setting a budget I decided to try my hand at the construction of a larger more durable greenhouse. This is the continuation of that tale from the July/August Greenhouse Madness, Part I adventure.

Surviving the Summer
I'm basically a spring, late summer, fall and winter gardener. I give up gardening in the summer because the heat is hard on the plants, my watering bill and me. I'm not too anxious to increase my electric bill so the thought of running an evaporative cooler in the new greenhouse didn't seem too appealing at the present time. But that could change before next summer.

Shade cloth that's supposed to keep out 50 percent of the sun didn't seem adequate in late June.

Instead, I covered both ends of the still under construction greenhouse with metal screen. I then put 50 percent shade cloth over the top of the greenhouse. By July, 50 percent shade didn't seem adequate and I added more shading. The space under the greenhouse bench provided even heavier shade that some plants needed.

Building the Greenhouse Bench
By the time the greenhouse was built I'd decided one 12- foot side wall and the 10-foot back wall would be bench area. I chose 34 inches as my working height from the floor and built the frame from 2 by 4's and attached them directly to the greenhouse frame. I used three 4 by 4 legs resting on left over clay pavers. Galvanized nails, metal joiners and screws were also used in the bench construction.

Two by 4s, 4 by 4 supporting legs, metal joiners, screws, and galvanized nails made the bench frame.
Using cedar fence material, the bench was made with open space between each of the wood slats to allow for water drainage and cleaning the bench.

The bench surface could have been metal or wood. I chose cedar wood cut from fence material. I made the bench surface as wide as I could which ended up at 35 inches down the side and 28 inches at the back. I had plenty of work surface and plenty of shade underneath the bench.

Innovative Design
Once the bench was built I decided I needed a place to put plants in hanging baskets that would get over wintered in the greenhouse. I decided to use metal electrical conduit to support hanging plants and the tomatoes I intended to grow during the winter. The metal conduit is strong and inexpensive and can be easily attached to wood using metal brackets and screws. A hack saw was used to cut the conduit to length.

Newly planted shade loving plants hang from metal conduit attached to the bottom of the greenhouse bench. In the summer, without cooling, the thermometer on the bench leg reached 120 degrees.
At one time during early summer the greenhouse became a drying area for garlic and garlic flowers as well as a place to grow plants.
Plastic hanging baskets with plastic supports melted out of shape from the summer heat.

First I attached conduit to the roof down each side and covered the sharp ends of the conduit with protective rubber caps. Happy with that, I also attached conduit under the bench so I could hang shade loving plants under there. Still looking for more hanging space I cut small lengths of conduit and attached them near the peak of the ceiling. The conduit worked out well and easily fit into the expanding build my own greenhouse budget I'd set up before I started construction.

Lesson's Learned
By August the new greenhouse had seen incredibly high temperatures. So high that hanging baskets with plastic supports melted out of shape and fell to the floor. A brief experiment with hydroponically grown tomatoes and cucumbers saw the plants reach the ceiling then burn up from the high summer temperatures. Leaf lettuce grown hydroponically quickly bolted and was so bitter to the taste that it couldn't be eaten. Numerous cuttings were started in a makeshift cutting bed of vermiculite and perlite. An unexpected infestation of aphids, red spider, and ants had to be taken care of with a little pest management.

By October thin flat fiberglass will cover the ends of the greenhouse as it's readied for winter. Hopefully electricity will have made its way to the greenhouse so that a light can be installed along with an electric heater to help get the plants through any cold winter nights of December and January. Unfortunately the greenhouse sits several hundred feet from the electrical box and the thought of digging a trench and running conduit and wire that distance is a bit daunting at the present time

Although water is available just outside the door by hose it would be nice to have a hose bib inside the greenhouse to make watering easier. It would also be nice to be able to hook up a timer activated misting system to help lower temperatures in the greenhouse and increase the humidity around the plants.

There's enough roof area that I could add gutters to catch rain to store in a trash can or other container for recycling the rain water.

Wish List
It's inevitable you'll have a wish list for a greenhouse once you start using one on a regular basis. The first thing, if you're an avid grower, is the wish you'd made it bigger.

Then you might wish the entire greenhouse was automated so you don't have to worry about heating and cooling or even watering.

Then you might wish you had more than one greenhouse so you can grow vegetables in one, maybe houseplants or cacti in another.

It's been fun building the greenhouse and disappointing to think of the mistakes made. Fortunately there's an organization for back yard greenhouse enthusiasts who want to learn more and to share information called the Hobby Greenhouse Association (HGA).

The non profit organization offers round robins where members discuss topics like greenhouse management, growing cacti and succulents, orchids and vegetable growing.

There's a seed exchange and a video and book library in addition to an e-mail connection for interested members. And once you're a member, HGA offers answers to your greenhouse maintenance and growing questions.

It's September and my greenhouse isn't completed the way I'd like it to someday be. But like the plants inside the greenhouse which are always growing, my greenhouse experience, I'm sure, is going to continue to grow as well. (1998)

Six months later, I need a bigger greenhouse.